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Giant Squid! Giant squids are genuinely awesome things.

Late Night Movie Musings

Yeah, I keep titling these late night, but I often don't get around to posting about them until the next day, thus the timestamps. Not that I can get this thing to recognize my time zone anyway. If anyone cared enough to wonder why they're all wonky, that is.

So anyway, I watched Mr. Vampire again, which is one of my all-time favorite flicks, and another horror film I recommend, although for entirely different reasons than Dog Soldiers. This one is funny as hell; a sort of slapstick kung-fu flick with awesome Taoist magic, idiot apprentices, Chinese hopping vampires, a frisky ghost, horror interspersed with rampant silliness, and of course, excellent action sequences. Most of the action sequence also mix horror and silliness; the fight in the jail is an excellent example of what combining skilled martial artists and lunacy can do, i.e. be incredibly entertaining.

I do feel bad for Ting-Ting, though. Considering her marriage prospects are Wai, her egotistical coward of a cousin, Chou, who is flippant and easily distracted, and Man-Choi, who is also not too bright and fairly homely to boot (and I'm trying to be charitable) she really ends up up a creek by the end. I'd say her best bet would be to marry Kau, the Taoist priest. Yeah, he's older (well, at least he's supposed to be) but at least he's capable and intelligent, has his own cool house, and doesn't go about accidently unleashing vampires and ghosts willy-nilly on the populace. #grins#

Late night Movie Musings

"I love it when a posh bird talks dirty!"
- Spoon

Watched Dog Soldiers again, and it is, in a word, brilliant. It's a horror movie written by a horror movie fan. Sure, it's got its flaws like any other film, but it is the most inventive and balls to the wall entertaining horror flick I've seen in ages. With a couple of notable exceptions there's no stupidity advancing the plot, which is a refreshing change, as is having characters who are trained and capable and who actually have to reload from time to time. Of course they're still out of their depth, otherwise it wouldn't be a horror film, but it's nice to see some people making plans and carrying them out rather than just screaming and flailing. There's some excellent suspense (even though this must be the fifth
or sixth time I've seen it) nods to other movies, some scenes that are laugh out loud funny and others that make even me consider flinching (and I've been fairly well jaded for years now) and effects that do their job nicely.
They should have gotten Nigel Benett for Captain Ryan, though. I mean, the actor they got practically is channeling him, but given Mr. Benett's track record at Lucien LaCroix, I think he would be even better at being angry and condescending.

Somewhere in the manufacturing process, I can only imagine that Cadburys adds pure, uncut crack cocaine into every batch of Mini Eggs. It's the only possible explanation for the cravings they inspire. I mean, I like chocolate as much as the next person, but I don't *need* it- except for Mini Eggs. If there's a bag of them around, I absolutely can't stay away from it. I'm just grateful they only put them out once a year...

"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being."

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."

-Jackie Robinson

The battle to support Peter S. Beagle continues...

...When I found out last week about the injustice being done to Mr. Peter S. Beagle, I searched out and emailed all the Last Unicorn fansites I could find, asking them to please link to the site and spread the word. Talia of Chanth.com not only put up a link, but very kindly made a lovely graphic that people can take and use on their own sites. I will be adding it to Dubious soon, but I wanted to bring it to all your attention, so that those of you with sites could link to it too. I think it's important that all of us who love this man's work step up and help him as much as we can.

So, watching Die Hard With a Vengeance. A short recap:

Hans Gruber = Alan Rickman
Simon Gruber = Jeremy Irons

...Whoa. Now *there* is a family with far more than its fair share of hotness. I mean, seriously, what would their parents have looked like?

Shameless Plug

Archie McPhee is running a contest where five random people who link to them via a blog will win a hundred dollar gift certificate. I can't think of any better place to have a massive gift certificate to spend, so I figure I'd give it a shot. I'd like to link to some of my favorite products, but since I did some Christmas shopping there and I just sent the packages off this week (I'm a little behind this year) I don't want to let the recipients know what they're getting. So I'll leave it at this, and tell you to go check out their site. Believe me, if you know me well enough to be reading this, it's someplace you'll like. #grins#

Thinking about it, I remember getting the catalogs in the 80's when it was still about half surplus stuff, and the other half was rubber chickens and Bibo. What the hell was the deal with Bibo, anyway? He looked like the illegimate child of E.T. and the Dungeon Master.

Late Night Movie Musings

I'm waiting until midnight so I can give Dexter his meds, and making fun of Man With The Golden Gun to pass the time.
Okay, so I should mention up front that while I find Bond films to be entertaining enough, if total fluff, I much prefer the ones with Sean Connery. I can't stand Roger Moore; I think he's smarmy and patronizing, so there's plenty of MST'ing ammo right there. But even beyond that, the girl in this one just totally steals the show in terms of unbelievability...I mean, I know that Bond girls aren't exactly fantastic role models for well-rounded individuals, but at least most of them can do one other thing besides their main function as T&A. Goodnight, though...I've met potted plants who were more intelligent and capable, not to mention better conversationalists. I'm not sure how anyone could believe that she functions an agent; I mean, I wouldn't trust her to take care of my cat for the weekend, much less handle intelligence operations. In fact I think anything with the word "intelligence" is pretty much beyond her.

Dear People Who Made Samurai Champloo,

Thank you for making Jin wear glasses. That is all.

Watching Highlander* on TV, and I am amused to note that they've left in all the beheadings and cut the shagging. Hmm. Double standard, anyone?


* What do you mean, "which one"? There was only the one movie. It was pretty cool, soundtrack by Queen and all that. They should have made a sequel. What? No, there wasn't. You're delusional. You must be thinking of something else. THERE WAS ONLY THE ONE MOVIE.

Geek Cred

Okay, so late night TV has reminded me of this. I'll preference all related anecdotes with the same title, so disinterested non-geeky parties may disembark. Although what those kind of people would be doing reading my blog is anybody's guess...

Anyway, early on while deathmatching Quake with the Gods Thereof, I was gibbed by the sniper rifle (one of their mods; uses the original nailgun and 200 ammo in one shot that will take down anyone not at full health and wearing red armor) and immediately shouted out that not only was it not a rifle noise, it was a .44 Magnum. And not only was it a .44 Mag, it was a .wav from Dirty Harry. The looks I got were worth the gibbing. And many, many subsequent ones. #grins#

So, yeah...

Well, let's see how this goes, then. While I'm a fan of do it yourself-ing, there's something to be said for not having to do your own formatting and commenting. I mean, it's enough of a struggle for me to find motivation to post in the first place.